So what's been your journey over the last few days?

Politics & Elections
1

Now that it’s basically over, we can look back at what have undoubtedly been some tense days.

My expectation going in was a comfortable win for Biden with a decent chance of an early Florida win more or less settling the issue. I was focusing on the NYT needle for Florida, NC and Georgia and it figured out very quickly that Biden was going to lose Florida which was disconcerting to say the least. Then for some time it showed that he was likely to lose all three states which was even more worrying. Finally Ohio was going poorly for Biden and it appeared that he was massively underperforming his polls. Then Trump established leads in MI and WI and a massive lead in PA.

At this point I was very seriously worried and on the verge of panic. Then it all started turning around. Fox and AP called Arizona for Trump probably prematurely as it turns out. The needle showed Biden with the edge in Georgia. And he started making serious gains in MI and WI.

By the time MI and WI were called I was fairly confident that Biden would win. I did some calculations which showed that Biden was running more than 2 points ahead of Hillary and on track to win PA by more than a point. I discovered Gogi Gupta’s spreadsheets showing that he was relentless making up ground in PA. I was following the Twitter feeds of the Nates and they seemed confident that Biden was on track.

Overall this has undoubtedly been the most dramatically satisfying of the presidential elections I have followed.

2

Pretty much the same for me. It’s been a rollercoaster. I was hoping for a resounding win for the Dems across the board and was more concerned with the successes the GOP was having in State and Congressional races than I was for POTUS given the delayed-action effect of absentee ballots that would be heavily blue.

Calmed down sometime yesterday morning I’d say.

3

My journey has been refreshing Google over and over to see the latest map from AP and getting panicky when it looked bad, and trying to rationalize it, and then finally relaxing when things turned Biden’s way.

Early on the governor in my state was decided which was probably even more important for me personally. I work for state government so the election determined who my boss was going to be for the next 4 years and how my job will be, or maybe even if I have one. Since that went well I was willing so accept whatever else happened.

4

My original expectation was that Biden would easily sweep such a manifestly unfit president out of office, with a blue wave on his coattails. A figure that was uppermost on my mind was when Nate Silver said on Monday that the Democrats had a 72% chance of taking the White House, the House, and the Senate.

When Texas looked competitive on Tuesday evening as the polls closed, I got positively giddy. Then everything went to shit. Florida and Texas were both called for Trump, and the Midwest looked like a repeat of 2016. I went to bed Tuesday night convinced that Biden was going to lose.

The next morning, I was in a terrible mood, partly due to poor sleep. I avoided the news for a bit, but gradually perceived that Biden had not lost yet.

The two days since have been better, but my mood now vacillates between “cautiously optimistic” and “brittle.” Even if Biden pulls this off, I’m not convinced that Trump won’t do some more norm-shattering acts in the coming days that nobody ever contemplated that a president might do.

So the best case now is that Biden takes office and is blocked at every turn by Mitch McConnell. Then when nothing gets accomplished, the Democrats get blamed and lose the House in 2022, followed by the presidency in 2024. At least Biden should be able to reverse much of the damage Trump has done by executive orders.

The worst case is that Trump burns everything down in the coming days and weeks, then somehow stays in office.

Thinking outside the box, I wonder if Biden (assuming he ends up prevailing and if he is so inclined) might get the House and Senate onboard with limiting the power of the presidency, because if Trump has taught us anything, it’s that our supposed system of checks and balances has serious deficiencies.

5

I am not currently as optimistic as any of you.
Since I am STILL a Republican who hoped my long time party might revert to sanity, I was disappointed by how stubbornly my friends and family were sticking to T-Rump. So I went into Election Day ready for sweeping good news, prepared for a tight battle, and expecting something in between. I really expected a Biden win and gains in both houses and the suspense was how Biden was going to win.

Since I am out west, disappointment was evident early in the evening. Started drinking shortly after dark and went to bed quite early expecting the worst. Woke up to a continuing battle of attrition (which I expected) but it was hard to see good news for Biden with those numbers. So Election Day Two the sequel was massively distracting but not enjoyable. I also had many chores I had been neglecting that I had to address - - - so tuned back in that evening when things turned into a horror movie.

I gave coverage way too much attention and dozed off not knowing what the monster was going to do next. Thursday I woke up to find that inside the movie we had not decided to split up and search the attic and basement – but neither had we made contacts with anyone outside the manner house who might rescue us. Why are we out here alone, so isolated and vulnerable? I tried to do more catching up on life, but ended up creeping back to check results far too often. Things started to look better, daylight, fewer dead bodies, plenty of scary noises from the monster (who by-the-way had barricaded himself inside the White House behind an unscaleable fence), but we were responding better than most casts in most movies.

Then it got quiet, too quiet. Counting stopped, legal threats hurled, growling from the monster!! Is he over there? Way over there? Is he . . .right behind us?!? I was determined to stay cool and not panic. How many days has it been? Have we entered a Purgatory like place where time and space no longer exist? Do you hear those footsteps?? Where are they coming from? We have to be proactive, we have to do something! Let’s stay together and let’s go thi…… DID YOU HEAR THAT? Where did it come from? I said: “Where did that sound come from?”

Since then, I keep hearing approaching vehicles that might be the authorities coming to help us – and then the sound fades into the distance. I tune into coverage and the monster growls behind me. I am so tired and I keep thinking if I can just get through this marsh I will be safe. I can see the end but I am so weary . . . and here comes the monster again. Is that a road?? Let’s make our way to the road! We see a path toward the road and Arizona dumps 70,000 votes and the Biden lead drops by Seven-Thousand.

I hear Pennsylvania results are growing, but the lead in AZ fades. So tired, so weary, just want to stop running – let’s just rest and catch our breath. SHIT!! HOW did he catch us again? How damn many lawsuits have been filed? Are the monster’s handpicked justices hearing these legal arguments? Where is he now? I haven’t heard him for a while, was anyone watching where he went???

So I feel like we have shot trump, burned him, stuck an axe in his head, run him over with a vehicle, and he still keeps coming. We all run as fast and as far as we can and he just lumbers after us and keeps making up ground. Will daylight ever break? Will we still be alive when it does? Is Trump going to cook us into a stew or a chili before this is over?

That’s what this feels like to me as time stretches out during this election and there is only one sane, logical answer. But we can never seem to obtain it, to reach safety.

6

I voted early on Friday and started having the sniffles over the weekend, so on Tuesday I went to get tested, and the line was much shorter than the two other times I went to the same facility in May and August. On my way home I drove by the ballot drop-off box to find that the guy asking people if they were citizens was no longer there.

I checked the news later in the evening to learn that Biden had no chance in Texas or Florida, dispelling any hopes of a landslide victory for Biden, and Trump’s early leads in the Midwest gave me flashbacks to 2016. While John King assured me that there were still many votes left to count, seeing Biden behind by more than 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania (not to mention the gaps in WI and MI) led me to start trying to come to terms with the idea of a second Trump term.

The next morning, I was heartened by the news that Biden managed to gain enough of a lead in Wisconsin for the state to be called in his favor, but he still had enough of a deficit in the other states that I decided to avoid the news as much as possible to maintain my sanity, which I managed to do for the most part until a coworker posted “MICHIGAN!” in Slack. Seeing that, plus the leads Biden had in Arizona and Nevada, gave me hope that he could pull off a ridiculously close 270-268 win. Not what I was hoping for, but I’d take it…though that would have left the door open for a single faithless elector to screw everything up.

That was pretty much my mindset for all of Wednesday, and even though the gaps in PA and GA continued to close throughout the day, I still had doubts that there were enough votes left to turn things around. It wasn’t until Thursday morning when Biden took the lead in both of those states when I finally knew that Trump’s defeat was assured.

7

Correction to the above (missed the edit window), it was THIS (Friday) morning, not Thursday, when the lead changed in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Time hasn’t been moving normally this year.

8

I was surprised when Trump won Florida by an easy margin and was thinking this was a repeat of 2016. He had substantial leads in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan when I went to bed but I knew there were many Democratic ballots yet to be counted.

When I woke up the following morning (Wednesday), it was essentially all but over; Biden had won. Even though the results weren’t official, it was clear by that point that he’d exceed 270 and it was nothing but a formality from that point on.

9

I watched enough of the returns Tuesday night to see that there was no blue wave, and that Trump had a great chance to win another term. I went to bed but couldn’t sleep, thinking about what was going to happen in the next four years.

After I finally fell asleep, I woke up on Wednesday and opened up my email before I turned on the TV. I first read the daily early-morning message from Heather Cox Richardson, who has been a beacon of hope during these times. Her last words were “Biden is still projected to win.”

I immediately started to feel better and my mood has dramatically improved with each bit of good news.

10

As a Republican who can’t stand Trump or the modern Republican party, but is equally disgusted with the Democrats, this is a better outcome than I dared hope for. Trump is gone but just barely, and the Republicans still hold the Senate. The Democrats are hopefully starting to realize that identity politics, woke outrage, and promises of big-government largesse are not going to win them elections.

Hopefully we’ll recover from some of the damage Trump has inflicted without giving the Democrats an opportunity to run wild and fuck up the country in their own (well-intentioned but misguided) way.

11

Tuesday before polls closed: Hopeful, expecting a decisive win if not a landslide
Tuesday 11PM: Disappointed not to get a decisive outcome, nervous
Wednesday: Very nervous. PTSD from 2016
Thursday: Starting to see Trump’s paths close off, getting more hopeful.
Friday: Impatient. Count faster!
Saturday: Jubilant. Enjoying the victory, savoring the Schadenfreude. Made a few laps around Trumpworld’s Twitter accounts, taunting and being an absolute dick.

I feel no regrets about mocking the “fuck your feelings” crew. They earned this with interest. I understand people who want to be civil and gracious; I myself waited too long and took too much abuse to show similar restratint. YOU’RE FIRED, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!

12

You realize the Democrats literally just won the biggest contest of the election, right?

13

Against a moron and a failure. This should have been a blowout. Maybe if the Democrats didn’t convince half the country they were going replace their pickup with a Prius, eliminate their police department, and force them to pay the healthcare costs of most of Central America, it would have been.

14

Welcome fellow traveler, we have trod the same path. I am a few steps ahead of you – a little further out of the Republican cave, but not nearly ready to enter the Democratic cave.

That being said, I have broken bread with these strange and exotic creatures and they not so different from us. Sure, deep in the back of the cave they have some extreme views similar (but polar opposite) to the ones those who took over our party once held at the fringe. But they are good,sincere people who have some well thought out and morally correct views we need to listen to and learn from.

You and I are not likely to go all in with their policies any time soon, but they do have good ideas we can agree to with very minor tweaks. Mostly, I assure you you may trust them and admire them without reservation. Unlike you and me who are programmed to believe every change is a slippery slope to ruination, they are accepting and welcoming. They want to get to a certain point out in the future, but they are patient and kind for the most part; we can find agreement and compromise with them.

And let me remind you of the time when OUR party used to revere negotiation and compromise. When we felt like focusing on what we agreed about was more important than where we diverged. When we tried to craft good policies that allowed everyone to care about their pet concern rather than the current GOP position of: “Agree with me 100% or die you liberal commie bastard!!”

They won, and they did it upon a platform of inclusion and agreement. Let’s give them a chance to live up to their rhetoric. I believe for the most part they will and most things will be better.
(Truth be told, I am much more worried about Mitch McConnell than I am of any democrat - even the radical ones.)

15

I’ve known for a while that this election wouldn’t be decided on Election Day, and so I haven’t made any effort to seek out information between then and now. I found out this morning from the chat in an online game I was playing, and so I then started seeking out more information. Much less stressful that way.

16

Democrats said no such thing. Fox News spun that bullshit out of whole cloth. That’s an indictment of Fox News and folks like you who don’t care to get information from primary sources.

17

Whatever dude. I don’t watch TV and I get my news from the NYT. I obviously didn’t mean that Democrats literally put those things into their platform. But, as you seem to acknowledge, I think that’s a reasonable description of how half the country perceives their policies.

And the fact is, there are a number of people on the Democratic side who really do believe that pickup trucks are wasteful and we’d be better off if everyone drove a small compact hybrid (or no car at all!), that the US has too many police officers and we should fire most of them and hire social workers instead, and that it’s immoral to withhold medical care from anyone who needs it. And these people all believe that winning an election with 50.1% of the vote and using the power of government to force these dramatic changes in other people’s lives in order to achieve their personal wishlist is, not just a reasonable thing to do, but a moral imperative.

And much of the country looks at those people, and looks at the Democratic candidate who is standing next to them (metaphorically speaking) and not forcibly denouncing this insanity, and concludes that maybe the Democratic candidate also thinks this is the appropriate role of government.

But sure, go ahead and blame Fox News.

18

Cutting and pasting, 'cause, yeah, exactly this. A damn roller coaster – and it ain’t over yet! There are still re-counts, court interference, and faithless electors for us to dread. Still, the dawn appears to have broken, after a long and dreadful night. Sic Semper Tyrannis.

19

Tuesday, heart racing, stomach churning.
Weds, feeling better.
Thursday, back to stomach churning.
Friday, breathing easier, still a bit anxious.
Sat. The long exhale, jubilation!

20

I think the point wasn’t that half the people don’t believe that (it’s hard to argue otherwise) but that the Democrats aren’t the ones convincing people of it. “Defund the police” is something that some protestors have chanted, and some local left wing politicians have been supportive of the idea (or in some cases have even done it, as they did in Seattle near where I live) but that’s not part of the Democratic Party’s platform.

The Green New Deal was an idea that was put out by AOC but also not embraced by the Democratic Party (at least not the whole thing, Biden said he would try to implement some things from it) and that’s the closest I’ve seen any Democrat come to something as dramatic as banning high gas consumption/pollution vehicles.

I’m not sure where funding Central America came from, unless that’s some blending of national health care and permissive immigration laws. Even then, that’s not even close to anything the Democrats have pushed.

I too am a former Republican who by the last presidential election had lost faith in the Republican Party, and while I’m not a Democrat I definitely would say I might lean that way by now. (And I wholeheartedly support Biden in this election.)